Kathleen Madigan

On lousy interviewers, ice fishing and coffee with Bailey's

Kathleen Madigan is one of the funniest people on the planet. She's considered a "comic's comic," but audiences are crazy about her, too.

Madigan is almost always on the road, from performing at clubs and theaters across North America to making countless appearances on late night television and starring in her own wildly successful television specials. She brings it all to Boise at the Egyptian Theatre on Friday, March 30, as part of her Boxed Wine and Bigfoot Tour—also the name of her current Netflix special.

Let's start with that name of your tour.

You can't be rattling bottles around out in the woods. If you're hunting for Bigfoot, you're going to need to take boxed wine. And I'm a big proponent of boxed wine. You never really hear anybody say they got a bad box.

Prior to coming to Boise, you're visiting the upper peninsula of Michigan.

I'm doing a casino show, and I asked the folks at the casino if they could find somebody to take me ice fishing during the day. It's something I always wanted to do. The lady at the casino said she would find a guy and promised he wouldn't be a pervert. I'm like, "OK, I really don't know if you had to get out in front of that one." But you know what? Good luck being a pervert with the amount of clothing I bought at the bass pro shop.

Growing up around the Great Lakes, all I can recall about ice fishing was that you couldn't go without a lot of beer.

But we're going pretty early. Being a tried-and-true, 100 percent Irish woman, I'll just have to start with coffee and Bailey's Irish Cream as a base coat.

I know you have a degree in journalism, so let's talk about the news.

Great! I love the news.

It's my understanding you're borderline obsessed with the 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Now we're hearing a full report on the disappearance has been suspended.

It may have been acceptable in 1492 to say, "Well, we lost a boat," but in 2018, I seriously don't understand why everyone's okay with losing a giant airplane. When it went missing, CNN, MSNBC, everybody was all over it ... Day 28, day 29, day 30. Then, everybody went, "Well, I guess we lost it."

I know! Two years ago on one of my comedy specials, I said, "We'll probably find Amelia Earhart before we find Flight 370."

Can you talk about the power of Netflix, particularly for a comedian?

It's the greatest invention of my lifetime. Back in the day, when I would have a special on HBO, Showtime or Comedy Central, legal departments would dissect my routine. I used to do a joke about Taco Bell—nothing negative, but I mentioned Taco Bell. They said, "Could you please just say Taco Hut?" No, because nobody knows what that is. It was bullshit, nitpicking and nonsense. When I used to have a special on cable, people would ask, "When is it on?" And the people at the network wouldn't even know. Netflix is what you want it to be. It's like a library.

I wanted to wait until the end of our conversation to bring this up. Your publicist forwarded a list of [forbidden] FAQs, like, "What are the differences between male and female comics?" and "How did you get into comedy?" I would never ask these questions.

You wouldn't believe how many bad, fake journalists there are. Look, I can't be an asshole, but you can. You can easily look this shit up, but for someone to ask, "How old are you? When did you get started?" What, you don't know what Google is? I try to make it nice. I really don't want to seem like an asshole, but come on, guys.

Honestly, I think it's as hilarious as it is sad.

Thanks. My favorite is "What's the difference between male and female comics?" Who asks this question? Then someone will ask, "Why do you think it's more difficult to be a female comedian?" I say, "Because you keep bringing it up."